Markos looks at the findings of a Research 2000/Dailykos survey of Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper’s Tennessee district, with a focus on health care, and concludes that it’s time to “cue up a primary challenger.”

Cooper fired back: “Private polls are inherently inaccurate, and most people disregard them. He who pays the piper calls the tune, and the Daily Kos got what it wanted.”

Jane Hamsher notes that Cooper didn’t appreciate Markos’ suggestion that he “was ripe for a primary challenge,” and she may have accidentally misquoted Cooper in the process. Cooper didn’t outright accuse Kos of “cooking up the poll results,” even if he implied as much. “Cooking up” was Pith’s interpretation of Cooper’s statement.

Hamsher is correct that it’s disingenuous for Cooper to pretend that he’s always been in support of a public option, but I think Cooper made at least one decent point as to why the poll’s findings may be misleading:

“But the real reason you have to doubt a poll like this is the following: President Obama won my district with 56% of the vote. This poll shows his favorable number at 66%, up 10 points. While I would like to think that President Obama’s numbers were that good, we all know that the polls have been bad for our President this month. The President has lost ground all over the country, but in the 5th district of Tennessee, he’s up by 10? I wish it were true, but I doubt seriously that it is.”

I’ll note that at least one question asked by the survey appears to be seriously misleading:

Do you favor or oppose creating a new public health insurance plan that anyone can purchase?

Favor  Oppose

All 61     28
Dem 80     11
Ind 64     26
GOP 20     65

As far as I can tell, the public health insurance option that would be created by H.R. 3200 would not be available to everyone. The Congressional Research Service’s report on the bill states:

“The Exchange would consist of a selection of private plans as well as a public option. Individuals wanting to purchase the public option or a private health insurance not through an employer or a grandfathered nongroup plan could only obtain such coverage through the Exchange. They would only be eligible to enroll in an Exchange plan if they were not enrolled in other acceptable coverage (e.g., from an employer, Medicare, and generally Medicaid).”

If my interpretation of the CRS report is correct, then the Kos poll hasn’t accurately gauged support for the public option in its current form.

None of this is to say that Cooper has it right on health care reform. My point is that it’s probably best to treat the Kos poll with some skepticism.